Kim Kardashian who? The reality TV star famously said she wanted to 'break the internet' with her racy cover for Paper Magazine last year, but another cover - for a far more empathetic human interest story - perhaps came closer to doing so.

Last week, Kardashian’s stepfather Bruce Jenner revealed a female identity on the cover of Vanity Fair and broke a world record for getting one million Twitter followers in under five hours.

The transition of the US Olympic gold medallist, now called Caitlyn, has attracted media interest after it emerged she had struggled with gender dysphoria since a young age.

In the 1980s, in exchange for killing the story, her then-publicist reportedly arranged a future interview with TV anchor Diane Sawyer. When the time was right, she would introduce Caitlyn to the world; that time was last week.

The PR is currently handled by Alan Nierob of Rogers & Cowan. Jenner told Vanity Fair: "I’ve always been confused with my gender identity. They’re going to say I’m doing this for publicity. I just can’t hold the curtain any longer."

On the cover’s release last Monday, up to 1.5 million people reacted on social media, with overwhelmingly positive support. Even Barack Obama tweeted of Jenner’s "courage".

The news trumped that of Kardashian, who announced she was pregnant with her second child on the same day. But it was Jenner who stole the media’s attention – and she didn’t even need to take her clothes off.